Phillips Edison–ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc., of Cincinnati, has acquired Brook Park Plaza, a 157,000-square-foot shopping center anchored by a Giant Eagle grocery store in Brook Park, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the REIT announced late last week.

Other tenants include Goodwill and Fresenius Medical Services, and the center overall is about 88 percent occupied. The anchor tenant is 82,000 square feet and includes a fuel station.

The purchaser is a public non-traded REIT that focuses on the acquisition and management of grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers, with a mix of national and regional retailers selling necessity-based goods and services, in strong demographic markets. It’s co-sponsored by Phillips Edison & Co. and AR Capital L.L.C.

The Brook Park Plaza purchase brings the company’s total portfolio to 22 properties, all retail, totaling nearly 2.2 million square feet and diversified across 13 states.

“Neighborhood shopping centers are in high demand, given the fact that the healthiest shopping center category is the neighborhood, convenience-oriented center,” Jeff Green, of retail consultants Jeff Green Partners, Phoenix, told CPE.

“These centers are a hotter commodity than the regional mall or power/big box centers, both of which are somewhat vulnerable in this struggling economic time.”

“The neighborhood centers most in demand by investors are those with the strongest, highest-volume area supermarkets, as the grocery category is the least likely to be impacted by Internet shopping,” Green added. “And in this case Giant Eagle has the highest market share in metro Cleveland.”

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Jeff Green Partners was founded in May of 2004 in response to a growing demand for a new level of expert consulting services in the retail real estate marketplace. Led by President and CEO Jeff Green, Jeff Green Partners provides a full spectrum of analytical and interpretive services for property owners and developers.